Kamikaze

A kamikaze ("divine wind" in Japanese) was an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot who carried out suicidal aerial strikes against the US Navy during World War II. The name comes from the "divine winds" which swept away the Mongol fleets of Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281, and the pilots saw these suicide missions as divine acts. Kamikazes were first used in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines in October 1944, with IJN Admiral Takijiro Onishi supervising their attacks. The kamikazes also notably participated in the Battle of Okinawa, during which men like Kiyoshi Ogawa flew their planes into United States ships in massive waves of suicide attacks. On 15 August 1945, the last kamikaze attack, led by Admiral Matome Ugaki himself, took place off Okinawa, with all but three planes (which returned back to base) being shot down before they could strike. The kamikaze tactics were recalled by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in the later 20th century when they used suicide bombings to target their enemies (like on 9/11).